Voters likely facing a November election ballot crowded with education-related initiatives will now have one fewer issue to decide.
The author of a vaguely defined proposed constitutional amendment to require the state and school districts to “provide all public school students with high-quality public schools” has decided to postpone the campaign two years.
“We have also decided that we are best positioned to go forward with a ballot initiative in the 2026 election cycle. This will give us the greatest opportunity to develop the broad-based public support and the necessary financial capacity to ensure success,” wrote David Welch, a Bay Area entrepreneur and the founder and chair of the nonprofit group Students Matter, in an email to supporters last week.
Welch and Students Matter previously underwrote Vergara v. the State of California and the California Teachers Association, an unsuccessful lawsuit filed in 2012 that challenged layoffs by seniority and other teacher workplace protections as disproportionately infringing low-income students’ educational rights.
California would become the first state to add “high quality” as a requirement for creating and funding public schools, although advocates are raising this idea with legislatures in other states, too, according to supporters.
In 1849, the California Constitution established children’s right to attend “free” public schools for at least six months each year. But it didn’t provide guidance on what a good education means or the resources needed to attain it.
In intentionally broad language, the one-sentence amendment, in its latest version, would read, “The state and its school districts shall provide all public school students with high-quality public schools, defined as schools that equip them with the tools necessary to participate fully in our economy, our society, and our democracy.”
Fleshing that out, over time, would be in the hands of the courts and the Legislature. They would determine whether high quality should be determined by academic standards and equitable opportunities for all students to achieve them. They’d decide the measures of high quality: teacher-student ratios, dollars per student, staff retention, preparation for post-graduation success, or student well-being.
In 2016, after years of litigation, the California Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of a lower court decision in Campaign for Quality Education v. the State of California that the constitution doesn’t guarantee any level of funding or level of quality. That, a Superior Court judge ruled, is for the Legislature to decide. In a sharp dissent from the Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision, Justice Goodwin Liu said it was regrettable that the court didn’t explore what is meant by a fundamental right to an education. California’s children deserve to know whether it is “a paper promise or a real guarantee,” he wrote.
Passage of the initiative would reignite that debate.
John Affeldt, managing director for Public Advocates, which represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit, maintains the court erred by not recognizing previous decisions that established education as a fundamental right “precisely because it meaningfully prepares students to succeed in college, career and as effective citizens.”
But Affeldt agreed that the initiative “essentially overrules the Court of Appeal’s decision that there is no guarantee of an education of any particular quality.”
“Our community partners would love to see (the appellate court’s decision) fall by the wayside,” he said. It could lead to a tangle of lawsuits initiated by individuals and organizations with the money to litigate. Some plaintiffs may want to relitigate the Vergara lawsuit or strengthen approval of charter schools with a proven track record. Others might cite the amendment to thwart funding cuts or to demand effective reading instruction strategies statewide.
Welch, in his email, said the amendment would empower parents and give legislators “a constitutional North Star” for creating better education policies.
When first grader Jordan Muñoz stopped going to school during the 2022-23 school year, his mother attributed it to depression, following the deaths of Muñoz’s great-grandfather and uncle. Some days, his mom couldn’t get him out of the house. Other days, she’d get him dressed and to the corner of Fresno’s Fremont Elementary, but he’d take off running. Most often, she failed to get him beyond the school parking lot.
“I tried to just take him. Leave him at school. But he would get right in front of my car so I wouldn’t leave,” said Muñoz’s mom, Deyanira Pacheco.
Aware of the difficulty, administration, counselors, psychologists and teachers at his Fresno Unified school developed a plan to support Muñoz, according to Cecilia Aguayo, the district’s child welfare and attendance specialist.
The district of over 70,000 students had made such plans before in an effort to reduce chronic absenteeism rates, which went from 50.3% during the 2021-22 school year to 35.4% in 2022-23. While this is still higher than pre-pandemic years, the decrease stands in sharp contrast to other districts, like Oakland Unified, where chronic absences rose from 47.5% to 61.4% during the same years.
Statewide, nearly a quarter of K-12 students remained chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year — a decline of about 5 percentage points from the previous school year, but a sign of the lingering effects of the pandemic that led to sharp drops in student attendance after schools reopened for in-person instruction. Students who are chronically absent from school are sometimes also the same children who do not have their basic needs met: Federal data shows that nearly half of all California homeless students, 44.5%, were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year.
Nearly a third of the 930 districts statewide that reported data had a higher rate of chronic absenteeism in 2022-23 than the year before. A small number of districts, 33, had a chronic absenteeism rate over 50% in 2022-23, the most recent data available.
EdSource’s analysis of data from the California Department of Education offers insight: The statewide average rate of excused absences for the 2022-23 school year was 54.7%, with unexcused absences at 39.2%. Both numbers are similar to pre-pandemic levels.
While both excused and unexcused absences are counted toward chronic absenteeism rates, a school’s knowledge of the reasons behind the absences can better help them support and re-engage students.
Researchers and school staff have long tried to better understand how to re-engage chronically absent students, or students who missed 10% or more days in one school year.
State education code lists over a dozen reasons for excusing students from school; however, interviews with districts show that many excused absences are mental health and illness-related. Unexcused absences could indicate that students did not have proper documentation to mark them excused, or that they provided no reason for their absence or that the reason they provided does not qualify as an excusable absence.
Fresno Unified is in the Central San Joaquin Valley and is the state’s third-largest district. Across the 30 districts in Fresno County, all but four decreased their chronic absences between 2021-22 and 2022-23. Altogether, the average change was 11.62 percentage points, with Fresno Unified, the county’s largest district, above average with a gain of 14.9 percentage points.
Child welfare and attendance specialist Aguayo made phone calls, visited Muñoz’s home and popped up at the school when Pacheco picked up her other child, a kindergartner, who soon followed his brother’s example and sometimes refused to attend school. The district referred them to counseling services.
Although Pacheco, the kids’ mother, said the visits and calls helped in a way, she didn’t pursue counseling, perhaps thinking it wouldn’t work, Aguayo said.
By the end of the 2022-23 school year, Muñoz had attended only 27 days out of 179 days enrolled — a 15% attendance rate. Of the days missed, only six were excused. The school district didn’t give up on him, however. They used every tool to get him back to school.
Oakland Unified’s rising chronic absences
Farther north, in Oakland, chronic absences increased from 47.5% in the 2021-22 school year to 61.4% the following school year. But the high rate was already clear prior to the pandemic, at 34.4% during 2018-19.
“There hasn’t been a ‘normal’ year in many years,” said Heather Palin, the district’s director of multitiered systems of support, about chronic absences, in October. “Just broadly speaking, this is way higher than pre-Covid.”
Oakland Unified, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a diverse district of 46,000 students that is currently facing a significant budget deficit. Most districts across Alameda County, of which Oakland Unified is the largest, either saw a decrease in chronic absenteeism or had virtually no change between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. Oakland Unified ranked last and stands out with an increase of 13.9 percentage points.
The district has adopted a plan aimed at reducing its 61.4% district absentee rate by 25 percentage points with similar drops in each individual school, Palin said.
Each Oakland Unified school is expected to have an attendance team that meets regularly and includes an administrator, community school manager, attendance specialist and principal. Teams’ plans for increasing attendance include offering incentives like attendance certificates, celebrations and swag.
“It was an expectation that was set last year, and we have more capacity to support it, and we’re more kind of unified as a system in the messaging around the importance of that team,” Palin said.
The district offers a virtual school, Sojourner Truth Virtual Academy, but it’s not aimed at students who are chronically absent. Rather, it’s a different learning format offered to all students.
Cumulative enrollment data shows that this school remained a popular choice for students: it had 250 enrolled students pre-pandemic, then jumped to 1,533 students during 2021-22. The following year, 2022-23, nearly 1,000 remained enrolled.
Palin said that district authorities do not know why all students are chronically absent because schools were unable to reach some families. The students they reached mostly said they no longer wanted to attend school or requested a transfer to the virtual academy. Students also cited illness, family relocation, mental health and safety concerns.
How insight from families can help
While school administrators can excuse absences based on students’ individual circumstances — even if the reason is typically not covered by state law — they can only do so if they know the difficulties absent students are experiencing.
According to a recently published PACE report that examined California attendance data across the 2017 and 2022 school years, schools with higher rates of unexcused absences often have lower attendance rates overall. The same study by the nonprofit research group found that “socioeconomically disadvantaged students are much more likely to have their absences labeled unexcused.”
To address the number of illness-related absences, Fresno Unified clarified expectations, informing families about appropriate scenarios in which to send their kids to school. Consequently, excused absences increased from 41.3% in 2021-22 to 54.8% the following year, while unexcused absences decreased from 64% to 43.4%.
When the district knows what’s impacting student attendance, they can support, not penalize families, which many feared, said Tashiana Aquino, executive director of support programs, and Abigail Arii, director of the district’s student support services.
The very few excused absences that Muñoz had, along with conversations with his mother, helped the district set up a plan to increase his attendance.
Staff sent letters, called, visited the home, and educated Pacheco about attendance laws. “They asked me why he didn’t want to stay at school,” Pacheco said.
But even with a plan in place, Pacheco couldn’t get Muñoz, 7, to school.
By Sept. 23, 2022, she’d enrolled Muñoz in the district’s eLearn Academy, hoping he’d complete the work from home. Still, he wouldn’t. Six weeks later, he was re-enrolled at Fremont but was still not attending school.
Pacheco faced a school attendance review board (SARB) case in June 2023, a step “we really tried to avoid,” Aguayo said.
But the case was the “wake-up call” that pushed Pacheco to get the help she and Muñoz needed, said district staff.
“I think that’s where she realized, ‘I need to step up, too,’” said Tainia Yeppez, the SARB technician.
During the case, Fresno Unified again referred the family to counseling services. This time, in summer 2023, Pacheco started Muñoz in therapy.
New, more flexible solutions
Ongoing chronic absenteeism requires new thinking, advocates say, to ensure students do not fall back on foundational academic skills.
“Just because kids are not in the school building doesn’t mean we can’t still figure out creative and innovative ways to educate them. These chronic absenteeism rates are not going to just drop,” said Lakisha Young, CEO and founder of parent advocacy group Oakland REACH. “Everybody is in uncharted territory. So the question is: ‘Can we change the conversation?’”
At the height of the pandemic, Oakland REACH established a virtual learning hub for Oakland Unified’s K-2 students, offering tutoring that kept them engaged and attending school regularly. Early results showed that 60% of their students improved two or more reading levels on the Oakland Unified assessment, while 30% improved three or more levels. The organization now offers paid fellowships for Oakland caregivers to work as tutors producing high academic results.
Part of the challenge with common alternative learning formats to re-engage absent students while meeting their academic needs is that they are not always viable for students whose homes do not have the space to designate for schoolwork, said Young.
“A family who chooses to home-school has a different setup than a kid that’s chronically absent, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be given that option,” she said. It’s up to each district to find the solutions that would best serve their students, she added.
Southern California’s Glendale Unified is one of the few school districts with a slight decrease of 1% in their absenteeism rate plus low excused and unexcused absences: 20.6% and 22.3%, respectively.
Last school year, more students met with the district SARB, said Hagop Eulmessekian, Glendale Unified director of student services.
To address increasing mental health concerns, every Glendale Unified school has a wellness center where students can take a break during the school day. If a student is experiencing behavioral challenges, they are transferred to a community day school where they take each class in the same room throughout the day while teachers rotate for different subjects.
“There’s no wiggle room for the students who kind of disappear” throughout the day, said Eulmessekian. “They get the same education, they get fed, they get additional support, whether it’s counseling or therapy, and then when we see they’re able to go back on our comprehensive campuses, we transfer them back.”
Oakland REACH’s Young encourages educators to think outside the box.
“We have got to get creative about these babies,” said Young. “At some point you have got to do something different. You have got to just say: ‘This kid’s at home, how do I still get them educated?’”
Back in Fresno, Muñoz has done a complete 180. As of March, his attendance rate is 98%.
“Counseling really does help a lot,” Pacheco said.
She also needed to learn skills to address the boy’s behavior, Aguayo said. “I think she kind of got the power she needed. She finally got control.”
Of 128 days, he’s only missed two, one of which was excused. Even on days when he’s sad about losing his great-grandfather and uncle, he goes to school, Pacheco said. In fact, he made a commitment at the beginning of the school year to attend every day.
“Now, he wakes up at 6 in the morning, ready to go,” Pacheco said with a grin. Muñoz, now 8, likes going to school to play soccer with his friends.
He is behind academically — the impact of not attending school for most of his first-grade year, Pacheco said. The school provides additional academic support through remediation classes.
“All he needed to do was attend,” Yeppez said.
Because of his current high attendance rate, the court dismissed the SARB case in December, and Muñoz ended counseling in February.
For other families with students not regularly attending school, Pacheco said schools and districts must help them by talking to them and figuring out the problem, much like Fresno Unified did for her, and families must utilize the provided or recommended services, such as counseling.
“I think it was a little bit of everything that helped mom,” Yeppez said. “She was willing to get the help, accept the help and make that change. She was willing to make that change for her son’s success.”
When the Covid-19 pandemic seriously disrupted the ability of students to take SATs and ACTs, many colleges and universities, including the University of California and California State University systems, either made standardized tests optional or dropped the requirement for admissions. Now, Dartmouth is the first to say that either SATs or ACTs will be required again for fall 2024 applicants, and a few other universities, including Harvard, are following this path.
Even before the pandemic, equity concerns were often cited as reasons these tests should not be required; both the UC and Cal State systems have maintained that they will continue to be SAT- and ACT-free.
To learn what university students think about the potential return of standardized testing, EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps asked them the following questions at seven California colleges and universities:
“While UC and Cal State have said there are no plans to change their test-free policy, in place since 2020, do you think standardized tests such as these should return? Why or why not?”
Below are their responses.
(Click on the names or images below to read what each person had to say.)
Alex Soriano opposes the return of standardized tests, suggesting that there should be “more holistic ways” to evaluate students equitably. However, he is unsure of what an alternative might look like.
“In my opinion, based on evaluating different skills … I feel like (the test) doesn’t really evaluate knowledge on the same level,” he said. “I think bringing back standardized tests would bring back [equity] issues.”
To showcase the disparity of standardized test scores, Soriano references EdGap.org. The website features a map that displays the median household income of neighborhoods and the average SAT and ACT scores in those areas. The map indicates that high-income areas exhibit well-performing test scores in comparison to those from low-income areas.
“Coming from the upper-middle-class area of San Diego, my area was super high (in SAT and ACT scores), and it made sense,” Soriano said. “A lot of my friends could afford to pay for the extra tutoring; they could pay for a counselor that can come in and work on standardized test prep, and not everybody is able to afford those services.”
By Jazlyn Dieguez
“I think they should (return) just because I think it’s a good (performance assessment) other than grades for colleges because some high schools inflate their GPAs,” Rodriguez said. “It’s kind of a middle ground.”
After taking the SAT exam once, Rodriguez was satisfied with the “OK” score he received since he wasn’t planning to apply to any universities with a high SAT requirement. Instead, he opted to attend Modesto Junior College and has since transferred to San Diego State University.
“It’s weird because I know some people are not great test-takers and some students haven’t had the luxury of being in certain classes or receiving tutoring,” he said. “Some people were spending crazy amounts of money to have a good SAT and ACT score. I wasn’t one of those guys, I was just happy with whatever I got.”
By Jazlyn Dieguez
“No, I do not believe standardized testing should be reinstated,” Kattaa said. “The SATs are a disadvantage for most college applicants.”
Kattaa believes that “a student’s GPA, extracurriculars, admission essays, and letters of recommendation speak more (about) a student’s academic and personal achievements. They are more than just one test.”
Kattaa also believes that the absence of required standardized tests has increased diversity on college campuses.
By Aya Mikbel
“I believe that standardized tests such as these should not return due to the amount of pressure it puts onto students and the possible disadvantage regarding admission status,” Naseer said. However, she sees the advantage of the tests being provided “for those who want to show more dedication.”
She understands that colleges and universities are looking for “well-rounded students; academics certainly play a greater role when applying to college.”
But Naseer is concerned that when students don’t have high scores, “It may cause them to be looked down upon, (and) there are other factors such as general academics or volunteer service that should be prioritized as well.”
Naseer continued, “As a student who didn’t take these tests, I feel that doing so allowed me to focus and improve on other areas of my studies/experience.”
By Aya Mikbel
“No, I don’t think these tests should be brought back,” Garcia said. “I think there should be a different type of examination process. I didn’t take the ACT or SAT and got in (to UCLA). I think they don’t really evaluate the student as a whole.”
Garcia added that she thinks the tests don’t “give a very good evaluation of students, academically speaking.”
By Delilah Brumer
“We got rid of the SAT and ACT requirements a few years ago, and I honestly think that it’s more fair for people to not have (these tests) as a requirement,” Wolin said.
Wolin said she was able to get SAT tutoring, but it was expensive for her family, and she’s “very aware that not everyone can afford that.”
“While I did have a leg up, I know that it wasn’t fair to everyone,” Wolin said. “I think abolishing that requirement was a step in the right direction. I wish I had a better solution for a replacement, but I don’t. At least now, I know they’re focusing on a more holistic approach, which I think is more fair.”
By Delilah Brumer
“I think it depends on the college,” Bar said. “For a school like Cal Poly, where a majority of what they are going to take into account is your GPA and test scores, it is different from a private college where they are going to take a more holistic approach.”
As a student who participated in examinations for his admission into Cal Poly, Bar said that he believed the university could benefit from reinstating test scores in exams, to add more depth to applications.
“Right now, Cal Poly doesn’t use essays, so all the application really consists of is biographical information and GPA,” Bar said. “I think there should be another component, like SATs or ACT scores. I think for a school that requires just such minimal information about the applicants, they should require it.”
By Arabel Meyer
“They should be test-free because it makes admissions more equal, and all higher SAT scores usually come with higher preparation,” Martinez said.
Martinez said she hopes UCs and CSUs would not require test scores because she finds inequality when colleges use standardized test scores for admissions. The SAT takes preparation and financial resources that not all students can access, according to Martinez.
“I came from a low-income community and rural community,” she said. “There was no such thing as SAT prep.”
Martinez only realized the importance of SAT preparation when her peers began to discuss private tutoring and other resources they had access to. She hopes that remaining test-free will provide greater opportunities for students, regardless of their financial position.
By Kelcie Lee
“Having it is a good idea,” Chiu said. “However, the SAT, when you take it, you can learn how to get a good score. So in a way, it’s almost rigged.”
She had mixed feelings when it comes to the SAT and ACT; she understands the purposes of assessing students, but also acknowledged flaws of using standardized tests for admissions.
“Even if you do get a good score, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re meant to go to one of these top schools.”
She believes a better option would involve the UCs making their own test that is “more knowledge-based,” as opposed to the memorization involved in prepping for the SAT.
“Ultimately, it’s a weird in-between of whether you should have it or not,” Chiu said.
By Kelcie Lee
“I personally think the tests aren’t necessary or helpful. I don’t think they are proof of intelligence.”
Williams transferred from Berkeley City College to Sonoma State in 2023. She did not have to take a standardized test to get admitted.
“I know people in my life that have told me about their experiences, and that they felt that the test was not concrete proof of whether or not they are intelligent.”
By Ally Valiente
Bernales said that he does not support standardized tests making a return because “the tests favor those that have access to more resources.”
He is dissatisfied with the inequity. “Families with money can get tutors to help educate their kids to do better and can afford for them to take it multiple times to improve, while some families may not be able to afford it,” Bernales said.
“Along with that,” he continued, “the [high] school’s funding also can affect the results of the test since a better funded school tends to have higher scores.”
By Ally Valiente
“No, because I think a lot of people just aren’t good test takers, and a lot of it’s just really generalized knowledge,” Mlouk said.
Mlouk said she did not get a good score on the SAT, but she had a high GPA, which helped her.
“I consider (myself) a pretty smart person, but the test does not reflect that at all,” she said.
Mlouk said standardized tests like the SAT and ACT aren’t helpful for people who are not good test takers.
“It would limit their chances even though they could excel at that school,” Mlouk said.
This story was updated at 4:25 pm with more details on the assessment results.
California students made some progress toward regaining their pre-Covid levels of achievement with incremental increases in English language arts, math and science scores last school year, according to state data released Wednesday.
English language arts test scores overall increased slightly, from 46.7% of the state’s students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in 2023 to 47% in 2024. Math and science scores also edged up incrementally, with 30.7% of students in both subjects meeting or exceeding proficiency standards compared with 30.2% the year before.
Smarter Balanced tests are given to students in third through eighth grades and in 11th grade. They are part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), which also includes the English Language Proficiency Assessment.
Last school year was the third year students returned to school since the Covid pandemic pushed schools into distance learning and caused dramatic declines in test scores after years of progress. In 2019, more than half of California students, 51.7%, met or exceeded state standards in English language arts, and 37.1% met or exceeded state standards in math.
Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the State Board of Education and an adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, said she found reason for encouragement in the scores. She said that the overall gains were consistent across grades and for Latino and Black students.
“California’s public schools are making encouraging gains in all of the key subject areas, and these gains are largest for our most vulnerable groups of students,” Darling-Hammond said in a statement. “Our governor and the Legislature have, in recent years, prioritized … accelerating learning and equity: community schools, expanded learning time, transitional kindergarten, and investments in literacy and math. Those efforts are paying dividends.”
Students from low-income households made larger gains in all three subjects on the tests than students overall — a change from initially after the pandemic. Low-income students’ scores in English language arts increased 1.5 percentage points over the previous year, with 36.8% meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in English. There was a similar increase in both math and science, with 20.7% meeting or exceeding standards — a 1.4 percentage point increase in each.
Darling-Hammond attributes the academic improvement to billions of dollars in federal and state assistance directed to students with the most needs. She acknowledged it’s not possible to tease out the impact of the state’s expanded after-school learning program relative to money spent on community schools or literacy coaches. But it’s apparent that the combined money is making a difference; for families experiencing evictions and illnesses in high-poverty neighborhoods, the pandemic isn’t over, she said.
“My heart goes out to those in the schools that deal daily with these issues,” Darling-Hammond said.
This narrowing of the performance gaps occurred even though the proportion of low-income students in California has grown significantly in the last seven years, from 58% to 65%, Darling-Hammond said. And the numbers of homeless and foster children are up too, she said.
After looking at the same state data, however, the nonprofit advocacy group Children Now expressed alarm. “California’s lack of progress in closing the education achievement gap over the past 10 years is completely unacceptable,” it said in a statement. “We have made almost no progress for our Black and Latino students, who make up more than 60% of California’s TK-12 student population, since the start of the Local Control Funding Formula and associated accountability system a decade ago.”
Additional protections are needed, Children Now stated, “to ensure the equity-focused funding that is the hallmark (of the funding formula) goes to the schools and students most in need to close our state’s unconscionable achievement gap.”
Racial/demographic breakdown of test scores from 2015 – 2024
English and math scores for students in all California schools and districts showing gaps in proficiency.
California school districts have received record levels of one-time and ongoing funding since the start of the Covid pandemic. But the last $12.5 billion in federal pandemic relief — 20% of which was required to be spent on learning recovery — had to be spent by last month.
California schools are getting creative to continue to fund positions and other support once funded by Covid dollars, said Alex Traverso, spokesperson for the California State Board of Education. Some schools in San Diego County, for example, are funding counselors and social worker positions, once paid for with federal Covid dollars, with the community schools dollars.
“So I think as much as we can, we are trying to find strategies and techniques that can keep these programs moving forward and keep student achievement on the rise,” Traverso said.
The gap in proficiency between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students remains daunting in 2023-24: 29.3 percentage points in English language arts and 30.2 percentage points in math — about 1 percentage point smaller than in 2022-23.
States’ scores flat after dropping
An analysis of third-grade reading by David Scarlett Wakelyn, a partner with Upswing Labs, a nonprofit that works with school districts to improve reading instruction, found that California’s scores were similar to 29 other states he has examined: flat after falling sharply after the pandemic.
Third grade is a benchmark year for achieving fluency. In 2018-19, the last year before the pandemic, 48.5% of California students were proficient or advanced; in 2023-24, 42.8% were, a drop of 5.7 percentage points. In the past three years, reading scores rose less than 1 percentage point.
Other states that take the Smarter Balanced assessments followed the same pattern, including Oregon, Nevada and Delaware, whose scores were below California before the pandemic and were again in 2023-24. Washington State, where 55% of students were proficient in 2018-19, fell to 47% and has stayed there the past three years.
None of the nation’s 10 largest states have bounced back to where they were before the pandemic, Wakelyn found. But in four “bright spot” states — Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina — reading scores increased by 3 to 5 percentage points each of the past three years and are now ahead of where they were before the pandemic. The state leadership in Louisiana, he said, has long focused on adopting high-quality instructional materials and giving teachers deep professional learning opportunities in the new curricula, he said.
Smarter Balanced test results divide student scores into four achievement levels, but this year the names of the levels have changed. Instead of “not meeting standards,” “standards nearly met,” “standards met” or “standards exceeded,” they are now “advanced,” “proficient,” “foundational” or “inconsistent.”
English learners have mixed results
Fewer English learners tested as proficient on the summative English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC) than last year. The percentage of English learners who tested as proficient went down from 16.5% in 2023 to 14.6% in 2024, while the percentage of English learners who had the most basic level of English increased from 20.33% to 23.93%.
Students classified as English learners have to take the summative ELPAC every year until they achieve proficiency. There are four levels of proficiency — “beginning to develop,” “somewhat developed,” “moderately developed,” and “well developed.”
Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, strategic adviser to the Californians Together, a nonprofit organization that advocates for English learners, said it is difficult to know what these numbers mean, because they could be due to a change in the demographics of English learners. For example, the increase in the percentage of students with the most basic level of English could be due to an increase in students who recently arrived in the U.S., she said. In addition, there is no information about how many students are reclassified as proficient in English.
However, she said, “it would suggest that districts take a look at their English language development program and see if there is a need for intentional work to enhance it.”
Los Angeles, Compton see gains
The number of students in Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD) who met or exceeded state proficiency standards in both English language arts and math increased by about 2 points since 2023. Now, 43% of students meet or exceed standards in English language arts and 32.83% of students meet or exceed standards in math.
School board member Kelly Gonez said the district is committed to continuous improvement and equity.
“Every day, we’re showing up for our students, and it’s showing results,” Gonez said at a news conference in July, when the district announced preliminary scores. “I believe that we’re at the tipping point of really achieving the ambitious goals that we have for our students in our school district.”
Nearby Compton Unified also saw improved test scores last school year. Roughly 43% of students met or exceeded proficiency standards in English language arts this year, compared with about 40% the previous year. The number of students who met or exceeded math standards also rose, from just over 31% to nearly 35% this year.
“Compton Unified School District has shown steady and remarkable progress in both math and English language arts, with our CAASPP scores far exceeding the state average for school districts with an unduplicated pupil count exceeding 90%,” Compton Unified School District Superintendent Darin Brawley said in a statement to EdSource.
Benecia’s 8 point gain in math scores, to 53% proficiency, was led by two years of growth by Hispanic students. At 40.7% proficiency, they are the first student group in the district to exceed its pre-pandemic 2018-19 rate. Superintendent Damon Wright credited the funding of districtwide professional learning and instructional coaches as factors.
Fallbrook’s one-year 5.2 point gain in English language arts and 5.9 pont gain in math bring the district almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Superintendent Monika Hazel also credits additional district-level math teaching specialists, leadership coaches and school-level instructional coaches for contributing to the improvement. The state’s $6 billion Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant, which will continue after federal Covid relief runs dry this fall, paid for some of the positions.
Bay Area schools’ results vary
In the Bay Area, some districts had big test score gains, while others stayed stagnant. Benicia Unified had a 4-point gain in its overall English test score, and an 8-point gain in math. San Francisco and Oakland test scores were mostly stagnant.
West Contra Costa Unified is laboring to bring its scores back to pre-pandemic levels. Since the 2021-22 school year, slightly more West Contra Costa students have tested proficient or higher in math — up 2 points to 23% this year. Students who meet or exceed state proficiency standards in English language arts have been flat since 2021 at 32%, compared with 34.9% pre-pandemic.
To help improve reading scores, the district created a 13-member literacy task force about a year ago to create a literacy plan and improve literacy instruction in the district. District officials did not respond to requests for an update on the task force’s progress.
Big gains for Central Valley migrant students
Tulare Joint Union High School District in the Central Valley region had data points worth celebrating and data pointing to areas that need improvement, said Kevin Covert, assistant superintendent for curriculum, technology and assessment of the test results.
Based on the 2024 tests, 53.5% of the 1,300 11th graders who took the exam met or exceeded English proficiency standards, a 2.2 point gain from the previous year. In math, 18.3% of students met or exceeded standards — an improvement of less than 1 point.
“Some people want to hang their hat on an overall test score,” Covert said. “We’re also looking at how our subgroups are doing.”
The percentage of Tulare Joint Union students with disabilities meeting or exceeding standards was 12.7% in English, a jump of more than 5 points, and 3.5% in math, an improvement of more than 2 points. Though scores have fluctuated for students with disabilities, the 5.5-point gain in English is the largest percentage growth the group has made within the last decade.
Though migrant students are a small population of the district’s students, 63.6% met or exceeded English standards, representing a double-digit gain. Only 18.2% met or exceeded math standards, although the increase of 1.5% was higher than the overall district increase.
“Our success on this test can only be as good, partly, as the instruction that’s going on in the classroom,” Covert said. But educators must also know where students are academically, which is harder to track in Tulare Joint Union.
Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest district, is struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels of achievement of 38% proficiency and above in English language arts and 29% proficiency and advanced in math. Superintendent Misty Her expressed confidence in the districtwide strategy known as “data chats.” At Data Chats, principals and staff evaluate data and set goals, including the need for intervention, for students to progress.
Community college bachelor’s degree programs can provide a concrete pathway to socioeconomic mobility, while helping achieve the dream of completing a bachelor’s degree for students who have not been served by any other public college sector, especially among populations who are historically underserved.
Nationwide, 187 community colleges in 24 states are now authorized to offer at least one bachelor’s degree program. It has been nearly a decade since 15 California community colleges first offered a bachelor’s degree program, and there are now at least 38 California community colleges that can do so. A survey of students participating in California’s pilot program found that more than half would not have pursued a bachelor’s degree had it not been offered at their community college.
Given that these programs can improve access to bachelor’s degree programs and jobs, it is frustrating that the programs are not more widely available across the state’s 116 community college campuses, which are closer to home for far more of the state’s students than either a UC or CSU campus.
Unfortunately, community colleges have historically had a complicated standing within the higher education ecosystem, and their bachelor’s degree programs have been held back by stigma, suspicion and scrutiny.
Stigma is palpable in references to community colleges as “junior” or “lower-tier” colleges, despite California authorizing them to provide bachelor’s degrees nearly a decade ago. Suspicion is evident in claims that community colleges are not cooperating with other entities, despite California’s policies that give universities the power to delay and even prevent community colleges from offering bachelor’s degrees. Scrutiny refers to the numbers of hoops that community colleges must jump through, especially with bachelor’s degree program approval.
But California’s community colleges are an important feature of the higher education landscape. Serving nearly 2 million students annually, it is the largest higher education system in the country. Despite evidence of their success in providing a concrete pathway to jobs and socioeconomic mobility, community college bachelor’s degree programs continue to face many roadblocks that do not center students’ and communities’ best interest at heart.
Let’s address common myths about community college bachelor’s degree programs:
Myth 1: These programs duplicate existing academic programs and steal students from colleges.
Reality: By 2030, there is a projected state shortage of 1.1 million bachelor’s degrees. Community college bachelor’s degree programs are one solution to this supply problem. Research shows California’s community college bachelor’s degree programs provide a pathway to bachelor’s degrees for people who likely would not have had it otherwise. They especially benefit older students — 77% of community college bachelor’s degree program students are 25 or older, compared with just 23% at California State University (CSU). There is no concrete evidence, to our knowledge, that shows that community college bachelor’s degree programs are “stealing” students from other public education segments in California. Research in Florida shows no decline in regional public university enrollment when community colleges offered a bachelor’s degree.
Myth 2: Community colleges lack quality and produce poor outcomes.
Myth 3: It is easy for community college bachelor’s degree programs to get approved.
Reality: Current policies create unique hurdles for community colleges that want to offer bachelor’s degrees. While California’s process of approving community college bachelor’s degree programs is similar to other states in some ways, it is unique in terms of the power that the CSU and University of California (UC) systems have to delay or prevent them from happening at all. For example, when Feather River College attempted to offer a bachelor’s degree in applied fire management, Cal Poly Humboldt — a college 270 miles away — objected to the program, citing duplication despite the fact that the fire program at Humboldt did not even exist yet.
It is easy to get caught up in preconceived myths about community colleges. But the reality is that community colleges are beneficial for students, and, by offering bachelor’s degrees, they can support the economic mobility of more students.
As California faces growing demand for bachelor’s degree holders, these programs offer a practical solution that deserves recognition and support rather than continued stigma, suspicion and scrutiny. Given their success, policymakers should strengthen and support these programs, allowing them to grow alongside other college options in California.
Debra D. Bragg is president of Bragg & Associates and endowed professor emerita of higher education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Elizabeth Meza is a senior research scientist at the University of Washington and a New America Education Policy Program Fellow for Community Colleges.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Kindergarten teacher Carla Randazzo watches a student write alphabet letters on a white board at Golden Empire Elementary School in Sacramento.
Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo
California’s students have struggled in the five years since the pandemic closed schools across the state. But kids in many schools are bouncing back, returning to pre-Covid achievement levels. What’s working? How have some districts innovated to turn kids’ learning curves upward once again?
After analyzing student-level statewide data and visiting nine districts in each of the past three years, our team has made these discoveries:
Mindful policies make a difference
Nationwide, the pandemic erased nearly two decades of progress in math and reading. In California, average math proficiency decreased by 6.4 percentage points between 2019 and 2022, and reading proficiency dropped by 4 percentage points. Our work shows a modest positive effect of early reopening and federal recovery investments over this period. This highlights the importance of keeping schools open when it is safe to do so and prioritizing high-need students in reopening. Federal stimulus dollars also helped during this period.
Our statewide work further shows that districts blended, braided and sequenced multiple funding sources to extend instructional learning time, strengthen staffing and provide learning supports.
We also studied the impact of recovery investments and specific district recovery programs. We did not find that increased federal Covid funding to schools increased student test scores post-pandemic. However, districts that devoted funds to teacher retention efforts and extended learning time showed more improvement in student attendance, a key to improving academic outcomes.
Cross-sector partnerships advance whole-child development
Prolonged school closure, social isolation, economic anxiety, housing and food insecurity, Covid-19 infection, and the loss of loved ones exacerbated a national mental health crisis already underway before the pandemic. In 2021, 42% of high school students nationwide experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 32% attempted or seriously considered attempting suicide. As schools reopened, educators found themselves dealing with not just academic learning, but also support for basic needs (such as food and health care), mental health, and life skills (such as relationship skills).
Some districts pivoted to fostering whole-child development. For example, Compton Unified partnered with community health providers to offer health care services (such as vaccinations and check-ups), and Del Norte Unified leveraged Medi-Cal reimbursements to provide mental health counseling and therapy sessions. Educators will still need to deal with the academic, behavioral and life-skills needs for years to come. More cross-sector partnerships with public health, social services and housing would better equip schools to address these challenges.
School innovations foster a rebound in learning
Overall spending infusions have helped students rebound, but the impact has been relatively small. More important is how Covid relief funds were spent by districts. Our longitudinal case study of nine districts revealed some substantial organizational changes — reforms that may stick over time.
One large structural reform was the investment in student well-being. Before the pandemic, student well-being was considered mostly secondary to instruction and academic achievement. However, the pandemic highlighted the need to integrate life skills into instruction. As a result, districts invested in new program materials and moved resources to hire counselors, social workers, psychologists, and increased student access to school-based supports. Some even built new community centers where students and families come together.
A smaller scale, yet key, reform is districts’ investment in career pathways. Districts like Compton and Milpitas Unified offer a wide variety of pathways — from E-sports to computer science to early education — that are tied to on-the-job internships and certificates. These pathways have played an important role in engaging students and connecting them with employment opportunities.
Districts also tried new approaches to the structure of schooling and classroom practices. For example, Glendale Unified shifted to a seven-period block schedule that allowed middle and high school students to add an elective course that sparked their interest. In Poway Unified, small groups of students meet with teachers and classroom aides to focus on specific skill areas.
Digital innovations engage students, but gaps remain
Many districts have turned to digital innovations to motivate kids. In Poway, coaches embedded in the classroom work with teachers to build learning stations, where stronger students work in teams, freeing teachers to provide more direct instruction to kids at risk of falling behind.
Unfortunately, since the pandemic, the digital divide has narrowed, but it has not been eliminated.
In spring 2020, when schools abruptly shifted online, 40% of California households with school-age children did not have reliable internet or devices for distance learning. Over time, the state has made remarkable progress in device access, but not as much progress with internet access. The lack of progress could be attributed to multiple factors, including the absence of pre-existing infrastructure and affordability challenges. Federal and state governments provided unprecedented investments (such as the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program and California Senate Bill 356) to address barriers to universal broadband access; however, communities face significant challenges in building out infrastructure and improving affordability.
The pandemic provided an unprecedented opportunity to rethink and restart public education. Given the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, learning disruptions will become the new norm for many communities throughout the U.S.
By learning from the example of districts that have demonstrated resilience and success in pandemic recovery, we can better prepare for future disruptions and build a more resilient public education that supports all students.
•••
Niu Gao is a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research. Julian Betts is a professor at UC San Diego. Jonathan Isler and Piper Stanger are administrators at the California Department of Education.
Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley, was part of the research team and contributed to this report.
This collaboration research is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through grant R305X230002 to the American Institutes for Research (AIR). Any errors or misinterpretations belong to the authors and do not reflect the views of the institute, the U.S. Department of Education or the California Department of Education.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post wrote about the efforts by the Trump administration to rewrite American history. Trump wants “patriotic history,” in which evil things never happened and non-white people and women were seldom noticed. In other words, he wants to control historical memory, sanitize it, and restore history as it was taught when he was in school about 65 years ago (1960), before the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and other actions that changed what historians know and teach.
Dvorak writes:
A section of Arlington National Cemetery’s website highlighting African American military heroes is gone.
The participation of transgender and queer protesters during the LGBTQ+ uprising at New York’s Stonewall Inn was deleted from the National Park Service’s website [nps.gov] about the federal monument.
And the Smithsonian museum in Washington, which attracts millions of visitors who enter free each year, will be instructed by Vice President JD Vance to remove “improper ideology.”
In a series of executive orders, President Donald Trump is reshaping the way America’s history is presented in places that people around the world visit.
In one order, he declared that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts “undermine our national unity,” and more pointedly, that highlighting the country’s most difficult chapters diminishes pride in America and produces “a sense of national shame.”
The president’s orders have left historians scrambling to collect and preserve aspects of the public record, as stories of Black, Brown, female or LGBTQ+ Americans are blanched from some public spaces. In some cases, the historical mentions initially removed have been replaced, but are more difficult to find online.
That rationale has galvanized historians to rebuke the idea that glossing over the nation’s traumas — instead of grappling with them — will foster pride, rather than shame.
Focusing on the shame, they say, misses a key point: Contending with the uglier parts of U.S. history is necessary for an honest and inclusive telling of the American story. Americans can feel pride in the nation’s accomplishments while acknowledging that some of the shameful actions in the past reverberate today.
“The past has no duty to our feelings,” said Chandra Manning, a history professor at Georgetown University.
“History does not exist to sing us lullabies or shower us with accolades. The past has no obligations to us at all,” Manning said. “We, however, do have an obligation to the past, and that is to strive to understand it in all its complexity, as experienced by all who lived through it, not just a select few.”
That is not to say that the uncomfortable weight of difficult truths isn’t a valid emotion.
Postwar Germans were so crushed by the burden of their people’s past, from the horrors of the Nazi regime to the protection of war criminals in the decades after the war, that they have a lengthy word for processing it: vergangenheitsbewältigung, which means the “work of coping with the past.” It has informed huge swaths of German literature and film and has shaped the physical way European cities create memorials and museums.
America’s version of vergangenheitsbewältigung can be found across the cultural landscape. From films to books to classrooms and museums, Americans are learning more details about slavery in the South, the way racism has affected everything from baseball to health care, and how sexism shaped the military.
Trump, however, looks at the U.S. version of vergangenheitsbewältigung differently. “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” said the executive order targeting museums, called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
That is what “fosters a sense of national shame,” he says in his order.
Historians take exception to that. “I would argue that it’s actually weird to feel shame about what people in the past did,” Georgetown history professor Katherine Benton-Cohen said. “As I like to tell my students, ‘I’m not talking about you. We will not use ‘we’ when we refer to Americans in the past, because it wasn’t us and we don’t have to feel responsible for their actions. You can divest yourself of this feeling,’” she said.
Germans also have a phrase for enabling a critical look at their nation’s past: die Gnade der spät-geborenen, “the grace of being born too late” to be held responsible for the horror of the Nazi years.
Benton-Cohen said she honed her approach to this during her first teaching job in the Deep South in 2003, when she emphasized the generational gap between her students and the history they were studying.
“They could speak freely of the past — even the recent past, like the 1950s and 1960s, because they weren’t there,” she said. “They were free to make their own conclusions. It was exciting, and it worked. Many told me it was the first time they had learned the history of the 1960s because their high schools — both public and private — had skipped it to avoid controversy. We did fine.”
Trump hasn’t limited his attempt to control how history is presented in museums or memorials. Among the first executive orders he issued was “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” Another one sought to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion in the nation’s workplaces, classrooms and museums. His version of American history tracks with how it was taught decades ago, before academics began bringing more diverse voices and viewpoints into their scholarship.
Maurice Jackson, a history professor at Georgetown University who specializes in jazz and Black history, said Black Americans have fought hard to tell their full story.
Black history was first published as “The Journal of Negro History” in 1916, in a townhouse in Washington when academic Carter G. Woodson began searching for the full story of his roots. A decade later, he introduced “Negro History Week” to schools across the United States, a history lesson that was widely cheered by White teachers and students alongside Black Americans who finally felt seen.
“Black history is America’s history,” Jackson said. And leaving the specifics of the Black experience out because it makes some people ashamed gives an incomplete picture of our nation, he said.
After Trump issued his executive orders, federal workers scrambled to interpret and obey them, which in some cases led to historical milestones being removed, or covered up and then replaced.
Federal workers removed a commemoration of the Tuskegee Airmen from the Pentagon website, then restored it. They taped butcher paper over the National Cryptologic Museum’s display honoring women and people of color, then uncovered the display.
Mentions of Harriet Tubman in a National Park Service display about the Underground Railroad were removed, then put back. The story of legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson’s military career was deleted from the Department of Defense website, then restored several days later.
Women known as WASPs risked their lives in military service — training and test pilots during World War II for a nation that didn’t allow them to open a bank account — is no longer a prominent part of the Pentagon’s digital story.
George Washington University historian Angela Zimmerman calls all the activity. which happened with a few keystrokes and in a matter of days, the digital equivalent of “Nazi book burnings.”
In response, historians — some professional, some amateur — are scrambling to preserve information before it is erased and forgotten.
The Organization of American Historians created the Records at Risk Data Collection Initiative, which is a callout for content that is in danger of being obliterated
This joins the decades-long work of preserving information by the Internet Archive, a California nonprofit started in 1996 that also runs the Wayback Machine, which stores digital records.
Craig Campbell, a digital map specialist in Seattle, replicated and stored the U.S. Geological Service’s entire historical catalogue. His work was crowdfunded by supporters.
“Historical maps are critical for a huge range of industries ranging from environmental science, conservation, real estate, urban planning, and even oil and gas exploration,” said Campbell, whose mapping company is called Pastmaps. “Losing access to the data and these maps not only destroys our ability to access and learn from history, but limits our ability to build upon it in so many ways as a country.”
After astronomer Rose Ferreira’s profile was scrubbed from, then returned, to NASA’s website, she posted about it on social media. In response, an online reader created a blog, Women in STEM, to preserve stories such as Ferreira’s.
“Programs that memorialize painful truths help ensure past wrongs are never revived to harm again,” Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nevada), said on X, noting that presidents are elected to “run our government — not rewrite our history.”
Authoritarian leaders have long made the whitewashing of history a tool in their regimes. Joseph Stalin expunged rivals from historic photographs. Adolf Hitler purged museums of modernist art and works created by Jewish artists, which he labeled “degenerate.” Museums in Mao Zedong’s China glorified his ideology.
While this may be unfamiliar to Americans, Georgetown University history professor Adam Rothman says that in the scope of human history, “these are precedented times.”
It’s not yet clear what the real-world effect of Trump’s Smithsonian order will be or exactly how it will be carried out. Who will determine what exhibits cause shame and need to be removed? What will the criteria be? Will exhibits that discuss slavery, for instance, be eliminated or altered?
“Our nation is an ongoing experiment,” says Manning, the Georgetown history professor, who has written books about the Civil War. “And what helps us do that now in 2024 compared to 1776 is that we do have a shared past.
“Every single human culture depends upon, grows out of, and is shaped by its past,” she said. “It is the past that has shaped all of us, it is our past that contains the bonds that can really hold us together.”
It’s what makes the study — and threat to — American history unique among nations. Benton-Cohen said that is what she sees happen with her students.
“The American striving to realize the democratic faith and all the difficulties it entailed and challenges overcome should inspire pride, not shame,” she said. “If you feel shame, as the kids would say, that’s a ‘you’ problem. That’s why I still fly the flag at my house; I’m not afraid of the American past, I’m alive with the possibilities — of finding common cause, of fighting for equality, of appreciating our shared humanity, of upholding our freedoms.”
Left to right: Carly Bresee, Erika Cedeno, Todd Shadbourne, Sesar Carreño and Keith Carames.
The last five years have not been easy for students or their teachers.
During Covid school closures, teachers, accustomed to using overhead projectors and pencil and paper in classrooms, had to learn to use new technology so their students could learn from home.
When students returned to campuses a year later, some had learning and socialization gaps. There were more behavior problems and chronic absenteeism.
Thousands of California teachers, discouraged by classroom discipline problems, quit the profession. But many took on the challenge, offering students social-emotional support and individualized instruction.
Keith Carames: Pandemic didn’t stop James Lick thespians
Drama teacher Keith Carames takes the adage “the show must go on” quite literally.
Keith Carames
A pandemic didn’t stop Carames and his students at James Lick Middle School in San Francisco from producing a show, even if it meant doing it virtually.
During school closures in the first year of the pandemic, Carames hired a director through the American Conservatory Theater to use digital storytelling and voiceovers to help students bring the Amanda Gorman poem “The Hill We Climb” to life in a five-minute video.
Once school reopened, Carames was reluctant to have actors masked in live productions, something other schools were doing.
“This is horrible,” Carames recalled. “Like it’s so disingenuous. We’re not using their full instrument. You don’t see their faces. It just made me sick.”
So, Carames hired two playwrights to work with students to write eight original plays based on their experiences during Covid. He then collaborated with the San Francisco Opera Guild to turn two of the plays into musicals.
“Everybody’s in the classroom with masks on,” Caramas said. “We rehearsed with masks on. I was like, OK, we’re going to do a show this year, but it’s not going to be like normal.”
Carames’s answer was to rent a theater space where Covid-tested students could act and be filmed on stage without a mask for 10 minutes at a time. A production company filmed the eight plays.
“We had fans blowing, and we had air filtration, and we had all the protocols in place,” Carames said.
Much has changed since then. Last month, students in Carames’ after-school drama program performed the musical “SpongeBob” in front of a live audience. No one wore masks. Last week, the student actors gathered after school to watch a recording of the video and to eat Mediterranean food provided by their teacher.
“Isn’t that cool?” Carames said.
Sesar Carreño: Central Valley school gets technology boost
Earlimart Middle School classrooms in Tulare County have had a technology boost since Covid closed schools.
Sesar CarreñoCredit: Lifetouch Photography
Students who once shared computers now each have one provided by Earlimart School District. Students and their families also have district-provided internet access in their homes, said SesarCarreño, an eighth-grade teacher at the school.
Now teachers use giant smart TVs to share their computer screens during lessons, instead of using overhead projectors and pull-down screens.
Carreño says the increased technology in the classroom has been a plus, but the increased access to everything the internet has to offer means more effort by teachers to keep students’ attention.
“They wander off, watch YouTube videos and things like that,” he said. “You say, ‘Hey, hey, don’t do that. Stay on task.’ “
Plagiarism can also be a problem when students copy and paste from the internet a little too often when doing homework. But it’s easy to catch, Carreño said.
“They don’t change the font … or it looks better than something I wrote at Cal State Northridge or UCLA,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s brilliant.’ We try to catch that, and I do ding them for that.”
Other than policing students on the internet, Carreño says he doesn’t have any more discipline problems than before the pandemic.
“We just had a fight 30 minutes ago in the yard,” he said. “We’re a middle school, so things will happen.”
Carly Bresee: Classrooms are getting back to normal
Carly Bresee was optimistic about her new career when she began her first full year of teaching in 2019. She had wanted to be a special education teacher since she was 5 years old.
Carly Bresee
But a lifetime of dreaming about teaching didn’t prepare her for teaching during Covid school closures or the increased social-emotional needs of her young students when they returned to school a year later. Bresee teaches transitional kindergarten through first-grade special education students with extensive support needs at Perkins K-8 School in San Diego Unified.
Bresee couldn’t teach her students online like most other teachers. So, she donned a face mask and gloves and made weekly home visits during Covid school closures.
“You know, kids, especially at that age, and then especially again with students with disabilities, sitting in front of a computer for school just wasn’t a possibility,” she said. “It wasn’t accessible learning.”
But returning to school was even harder, Bresee said. Students had increased social-emotional needs and unexpected behavior that left Bresee and other classroom staff exhausted.
“We would go home and not be able to do anything else,” she said. “I would go home and fall asleep at like 4:30 in the afternoon.”
Bresee considered leaving the profession then, but is now more optimistic.
“I’m feeling good this year,” she said. “Things are getting back into a routine in my classroom. … It does feel like I’m getting my feet under me again. So, it does feel like I’m headed in the right direction.”
Todd Shadbourne: Teachers became technology converts
Foulks Ranch Elementary teacher Todd Shadbourne was a self-described “pencil-paper guy” until the Covid pandemic closed schools, including his campus in Elk Grove, in the spring of 2020.
Todd Shadbourne
Suddenly, he needed to learn to use online video conferencing programs, classroom management tools and other technology to ensure his students could learn from their homes.
“I’m almost 60, and I was surrounded by younger colleagues who totally just collaborated with me,” Shadbourne said. “I worked with my colleagues and I learned how to do it, and I’m really confident at it now.”
When students returned to school, the computers, classroom management tools and online lessons came with them. The technology now allows students and their parents more access to teachers’ lesson plans and other classroom materials, Shadbourne said.
“I think it has helped me to communicate with parents more,” said Shadbourne, who teaches sixth grade. “I’ve been teaching for a long time, and I remember when they were introducing emails and I remember when we were going to workshops for voicemail. And now, there are so many ways that I can communicate with parents. It’s almost too much.”
And now, when there are technical problems in the classroom, the entire class jumps in to help solve problems, he said.
Shadbourne says his newfound confidence in his ability to use technology has made him more self-assured in other areas as well.
“I’m more willing to try new things, and I’m not afraid to mess up,” Shadbourne said.
Erika Cedeno: Building connections key to student learning
Spanish teacher Erika Cedeno believes connecting with her students is crucial to establishing good relationships with them. She thinks it is even more important since students returned to school after a year of learning in isolation.
Erika Cedeno
Cedeno says she doesn’t have any behavior problems in her classes. Mutual respect and trust are key, she said.
She builds connections, in part, by setting aside time to have conversations with students, and by inviting them to use her classroom to heat up meals or just to hang out during lunch.
“To say hello at the door is not enough,” said Cedeno, who was recently named Teacher of the Year at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita.
“They need to trust you, and they need to like you,” Cedeno said. “Because if they don’t like you, they’re not going to learn.”
As chair of the world languages department at the school, Cedeno has encouraged other teachers to use project-based learning and to focus more on social-emotional support in the classroom.
She recently applied for a grant to replace the desks in her classroom with tables, so that the students can collaborate in small groups.
“When you collaborate in the real world, you don’t collaborate in rows,” Cedeno said. “With tables, you collaborate, you give feedback, you talk and you say your point of view. I’m creating that environment, and my principal is loving it.”
